Secret Alices
by Strawberry9212
Summary: Hotaru has gotten transferred and left Mikan all alone again. This time, Mikan can't follow her. Left in depression, Mikan finally resolves to train to become strong enough to protect herself and help the Academy. But the thing is, the others don't know.
1. Chapter 1 The Beginning

A/N: Hey!! this is my first Gakuen Alice fic, I hope that you like it. Don't be too mean to it, I did this all in one go .!! I hope that you like it though!! Please review!!

Sakura Mikan sure was a strange girl, always happy, acting on instinct, not thinking twice. She was 12, but she still acted like a 10 year-old, always attached to her friends, her best friend had been transferred to another facility when she was eleven, leaving her broken hearted and lonely, no one able to fill the empty space.

She was a void that no one could stop, she didn't do anything, not even smile after her best friend was transferred. But that was until six months after that she suddenly started acting like how she did when she first arrived at the academy, acting before thinking. Everyone, her classmates and other close friends, were relieved that she was able to recover, but the thing that they didn't know what that she didn't recover fully. She would still stare into space with a longing look in her eyes, when alone or even in a group discussion.

Suddenly she started coming to class, more tired that she already was, more busy and occupied than usual, hanging around her friends less, and after a while, there was a shaper look in her eyes, much more keen than before.

The only one that noticed the change in her eyes was the one that loved her, Hyuuga Natsume. He noticed the change in her eyes after a while of observing her, after the other changes. He thought that it was weird that the happy-go-lucky girl was calmer that before, he thought that she finally matured, but no one could mature that quickly.

Mikan had also climbed the star ranks quickly, now a triple star, after the changes started to die down and almost become invisible, she came to class as energetic as ever, had more time, only really busy for a period of time, hanging more around her friends, eyes sharp but softer than before.

Also something else about her that changed, the hidden Alice that she discovered when she had a terrible encounter with the Curse Alice, slowly started to fade away and proved to only be the first form of Alices, a childhood Alice.

Something else that Natsume noticed, not related to the hyperactive brunette, was that the missions that he was sent on, lessened, which his best friend, Nogi Ruka, was glad for. He suspected that there was another new member in the Dangerous Ability Class, that could do the same as him that he hadn't met, but he wasn't so sure about it. But he had a feeling that he was going to meet the mystery agent soon.

* * *

It was a normal day during homeroom with the hyperactive brunette that everyone loved, announced to her circle of friends, "Ne ne ne, sorry guys, but I won't be able to attend the End of the Year Party that you guys planned, I'm going to be really bust around that time," as she clapped her hands together and bowed for forgiveness.

Her friends forgave her as they asked what she had to to and she responded, "Oh, I'm working on a project that can help boost my grade so that I can get the honor student award this year, so that I can finally visit oji-chan this year during the summer."

"Wow, Mikan-chan, you're really working hard this year," Tobita Yuu, still the class representative, said.

"Yeah, I haven't bee able to see him since I got here two years ago, and he's my only family so it's hard being away from him for so long," Mikan said as she looked down to the ground and scratched the back of her head, slightly embarrassed.

"It's okay Mikan-chan, we'll root for you, ganbatane!" Yuu, also known as Iinchou, said, along with shouts of agreement from the others.

"Ahh, thanks guys, now I'll work even harder!" Mikan said as she balled up her fist, a determined look in her eyes.

A little ways away, the two popular high-ranked boys watched the group cheer in happiness and encouragement, one just silently observed and cracked a small smile as the other muttered, "Baka," under his breath.

The one that muttered an insult stood up and walked towards the door and as the other started following, he was stopped, "Ruka, stay here, where I'm going, you'll just be a nuisance."

The other, also known as Nogi Ruka, stopped and obeyed as he watched his best friend, Hyuuga Natsume walk out of the classroom, hands stuffed into his pocket.

Ruka sighed as he walked over the the group of friends that were talking about how awesome the End of the Year Party was going to be.

"Ne, Ruka-pyon, what's wrong?" Mikan asked with a worried look on her face as she noticed his presence.

Ruka shook his head and said, "Nothing, it's just that Natsume is going on another mission, I'm worried about him."

"Don't worry about it, he'll be okay, he always comes back from his missions, it's not like he'll suddenly disappear or anything," Mikan assured as she comforted him with her words.

"Yeah," Ruka said as he smiled at Mikan, glad that she was there.

Mikan then looked up at the clock on the wall and then said to her friends, "Well, I think that that it's best that I go work on my project now, so that I'll be able to attend at least part of the End of the Year Party," as she stuck her tongue out and bid goodbye to her friends and headed towards her dorm room.

As she left the classroom, she hurried to her dorm room to change and go to the place that she really needed to go to, the others must have already gathered and were heading there.

When she got to her dorm room, she quickly walked over to her closet and opened in and reached behind all of the clothing hanging on the rack, and pulled out a black outfit in one hand, and a wooden black mask in the other. She walked over to her bed threw down the things that she was holding and started undressing. Mikan then started putting on the black outfit which was the completely black version of the elementary school uniform for boys. Then, she threw her hair in a wig that was styled for a boy's hair style, and clipped it in places where it couldn't be seen and would stay secure even if she moved around a lot.

Then she put on the last piece of her outfit and placed the completely black mask over her face, it was completely black except for two eye-holes carved into it. Since she didn't have time, she just left her discarded uniform on her bed and walked over to her window, opened it, and jumped out into the air and disappeared.

She had teleported into a room and hid in the shadows waiting for her cue to come into the light. She watched as the door opened and in came a few people, one wearing a familiar black mask. Then a voice came from the direction of the of the large armchair, directed towards the group of people who had just walked in.

"Natsume, you'll be going on this mission without the rest of the group," the voice started, as the one with the mask nodded, "but you won't be alone," the voice continued as the one with the mask nodded again. If he didn't have the mask on, then his face would have shown a bit of shock, who was he going to work with, in the past, he either worked with his team or worked alone, this was a change.

The voice then informed, "He is under the orders of the High school Principle, so he doesn't follow my orders, he follows his. I know that it is weird that the High school Principle would have a personal agent, but it seemed that he wanted to take part in this particular mission."

Then the voice was directed towards her, "You may come out now," as the others sported a shocked look on their face, there was another presence in the room that they had not detected?

Mikan stepped out from the shadows and into the dim light, silent. "This is Kochira Daisuke-san, and this is Hyuuga Natsume," the voice introduced the two masked ones as they nodded to each other in acknowledgment.

"Kochira-san will be your temporary partner for this mission and a few of them in the future, I hope that you two will get along well, you two are dismissed, report here at midnight," the voice commanded as everyone nodded, bowed, and left without question.

After they exited the room, they all went their separate ways as Daisuke walked down the hallway, he felt a presence following him as he turned the corner, he saw out of the corner of his eye that his new temporary partner was following him, probably wanting to know more about him, but he couldn't allow that.

Then Daisuke walked into an empty classroom, and walked over to one of the windows that was closet to the branches of the tree standing right outside. He then opened the window and leaped out.

Natsume was following his new mysterious partner when Daisuke walked into an empty classroom. Natsume waited outside for awhile as he strained his ears to listen to what was going on inside and that was when he heard a window being opened. After a while, he slowly and cautiously entered the room to see it completely empty.

Natsume walked over to the open window and looked outside, up, down, left, right, didn't see hide nor hair of his new partner, his new partner moved fast.

Mikan had teleported back into her room once her foot left the windowsill, she needed to be careful of Natsume, he was smart, smart enough to be able to figure what was really going on.

What really was going on was that Mikan had been training under the High school and Middle school principles, since six months after her best friend's, Imai Hotaru, transfer. Not only did she now have three natural Alices, the first which everyone knew that she had, the Nullification Alice, the second which she made to have seemed to fade away, the Stealing Alice, and the third which she had discovered a year ago during her training and had kept hidden from her friends and classmates, the Killing Alice, she also had two artificial Alices. Mikan had obtained the two artificial Alices by the use of he second Alice, the Stealing Alice. With the permission of the original holders, she "stole" parts of their Alices, converted it into an Alice stone and inserted it into her own body. Therefore, with intensive training, she is now able to use it at her will.

Also, she still had the Alices stones that were given to her from before, part of the Amplification Alice stone from a sempai of hers, part of the Teleportaion Alice stone from another sempai, the one who she "stole" part of his Alice for her personal use, and a full Fire Alice stone, from Natsume, the one that appeared on her windowsill that she found the day after her class learned how to make their own Alice stones.

The few people that watched over her even more carefully now, included the High school and Middle school, who provided her with the Barrier Alice, principles, the previous school representative from a year ago, Sakurano Shuichi, the one that provided her with the Teleportation Alice, the older brother of her best friend, Imai Subaru, the one that got her best friend into the blackmailing business, Yamanouchi Shizune, the group of elementary teachers, Narumi, Misaki, Serina, and Jinno, and the head of the Special Type department, Noda. All of them are in on what was really happening with Mikan and support her all the way.

Mikan looked at the alarm clock on bedside table and saw that it was 4:30 and decided to take a shower before going to dinner and meeting her friends again. She walked into her bathroom, walked over to the bath tub, adjusted the temperature, and then pushed in the plug for the drain and let the bathtub fill up. As she waited for the bath to fill up, she unclipped the wig and took it off and threw it onto the counter near the sink, then she untied her hair and retied her hair back into the original pigtails. Then she leaned against the sink as she looked into the mirror, thinking, why did she insist on training under the two other principles a year ago?

Oh yeah, it was because she wanted to be strong enough to take care of herself while Hotaru was gone, also, it killed two birds with one stone, she wanted to hone in on her Alice controlling skills as it also helped the High school principle take control of some of the missions that the Elementary school principle was giving out. Mikan had already gone on a few solo missions before, which consisted of protecting people, retrieving things, looking for things, and gathering information, most of which did little help to help train her many Alices.

Her weakest Alice was her third natural Alice, the Killing Alice,the adults, not wanting her to become traumatized, only allowed her to use it when hunting for food on the few missions where she had to camp out. They also only let her use it in dire situations and emergencies.

For the other Alices, she was able to train with the teachers and the ones that knew about her. The one that helped her with her Teleportation Alice was the one that she got it from, Sakurano, the one that helped her the most with her Barrier Alice was the one that she got it from, the Middle school Principle, along with everyone else. Basically everyone helped her with her initial Alice, the Nullification Alice, but the one that motivated the most was Jinno-sensei, as he helped her train by shooting lightning bolts at her, if she didn't want to get shocked then she would have to use her Alice, she had a rough time training with him. The one that helped her the most with her third Alice, the Killing Alice, was Misaki-sensei, as he made certain weeds huge and monstrous, and she had to kill it before it hurt her, it also killed two birds with one stone, it helped her train, as it helped him get rid of weeds. For her second Alice, the Stealing Alice, all of them helped her as they allowed her to steal all and parts of their Alice and then put it back into their bodies.

One time as all of them had free time and decided to help train Mikan's Stealing Alice, she stole all of their Alices and put all of the stones together an jumbled them it, it also helped her decipher what kind of Alice it was just by looking at the Alice stone, but she wasn't paying attention for a bit and put the Lightning Alice into Narumi-sensei's body and the Human Pheromone Alice into Jinno-sensei's body, which they didn't notice until the next day when they tried to use their Alice.

Jinno-sensei was trying to punish a student when he found out, and Narumi-sensei was trying to get away from from Misaki-sensei after stealing another bean-whip, and accidentally electrified him. She got punished later by Jinno-sensei later, he shot lightning bolts faster than she could nullify them and got many burnt marks.

Mikan winced as she remembered that and checked the tub and saw that it was ready and turned off he water, then she stripped out of her uniform and got into the tub.

A lot had happened in the past year and a half.

A/N: Hey, I hope that you liked it, I accept flames, encouragement, praise, tips, and much more, just review please!! Remember this is my first Gakuen Alice fic, so don't be too harsh .! But I hope that you liked it and please review!! Love you all!!


	2. Chapter 2 A Free Box of Candy

A/N: Haylo people! I thought that the first chapter was kind of heavy so I'm back with a lighter chapter. I hope that you like it and please review!!

Mikan had finally finished her shower/bath when she heard a knock on her door.

"Hold on!" Mikan called out to the person waiting outside her door as she quickly put her regular uniform on.

Mikan then walked over to her door while drying her hair and opened it to see what was left of the "Three Geeky Sisters," after Hotaru left.

"Hey Mikan, I hope that we're not bothering you!" Umenomiya Anna said.

"Oh don't worry, I was taking a break and just came out of the shower," Mikan said as she invited them in.

"Pardon our intrusion!" chimed the two guests.

"Oh, you don't have to be so formal," Mikan said as she continued to dry her hair with the towel.

"Sorry, old habits die hard," Ogasawara Nonoko said.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" Mikan asked casually.

"I don't know," Anna said.

"We just wanted to hang out before dinner, because we were pretty sure that you'll be busy working on your project after dinner," Nonoko replied.

"Cool, sorry, I"m drying my hair, hold on," Mikan said as she walked into the bathroom, threw the towel into the hamper, and took out her comb and the hair dryer that Hotaru invented for her, it was a cute portable hair dryer that dried hair really quickly.

Mikan didn't originally plan to wash her hair, it was something that happened to her that caused her to wash it.

_Flashback _

Mikan was getting into the tub when she slipped on a misplaced mat on the bathroom floor and fell into the bathtub head first. Three bad things resulted from that one incident, one, she probably had bruises forming all over her body, two, her hair was wet and she didn't plan to wash it, and third, water was all over the bathroom floor.

Mikan sighed as she decided to wash her hair and started to take the rubber bands out of her hair and surprising, instead of becoming all tangle, they came out in one go, at least one thing went well.

_End Flashback_

Mikan walked back out and saw that the two of them were sitting on her bed. "Hey, what do you guys want to do until dinner, we have about two hours," Mikan said as she looked at the clock an saw that it was 5:13, dinner was served at 7:00.

"Hmm, let's talk," Nonoko suggested.

"Okay," agreed the other two.

"Oh yeah, just a while ago, I heard a scream coming from this end of the hall, did you guys hear it?" Nonoko asked the other two.

"Yeah, I heard it too, it was high pitched, most likely a girl," Anna added.

Mikan inwardly sweatdropped, she must have screamed without knowing it. "Maybe someone slipped," she suggested.

"Nah, that's too boring, what if it... WAS A GHOST!!" Nonoko exclaimed, causing Anna to shiver and Mikan to sweatdrop again, what an imagination this girl has.

"I'm pretty sure that it was just something that hurt themselves," Mikan assured.

"But, but, but, what if it really was a ghost?" Nonoko asked.

"I'm pretty sure that it's not, stop it, you're scaring Anna-chan," Mikan said as she laughed a bit and hugged Anna who was shivering.

"Oh sorry, Anna-chan, just wanted to stir things up," Nonoko said guiltily, scratching the back of her head.

"Hey, do the both of you still have a crush on Misaki-sensei?" Mikan asked, curious.

The two of them blushed as Anna sputtered out, "A bit."

"Reeeally? You too, Nonoko?" Mikan asked excitedly as Nonoko nodded.

"Wooow, how long have you guys like him, two years? Three years?" Mikan asked as she finally dried her hair, turned off and put down the hair dryer, then put her hair back into the original pigtails.

Both Anna and Nonoko had a sparkle in their eyes as they responded simultaneously, "I've like him since I've laid eyes on him."

'Woah, O.o, hardcore," Mikan thought as she inwardly sweatdropped.

"What about you, Mikan-chan?" Nonoko asked.

Mikan scratched the back of her head, trying to think of an answer, "Well, I still don't know," she finally answered.

"Ehh? How long have you been like that?" Anna asked.

"Eh? What do you mean, 'How long have you been like that?'. What is that supposed to mean?" Mikan asked, bewildered at her friends comment.

"Well, remember, two years ago, for the last dance, when we asked you who you were going to pick, you stumbled and still wasn't sure," Anna said.

"Yeah, that was TWO YEARS ago, not two weeks, not two months, TWO YEARS ago," Nonoko said, emphasizing the time elapse.

Blushing, Mikan sputtered out, "Well, well, I don't necessarily need to like someone, do I? What if I didn't like anyone before and couldn't find of a way to answer you guys?"

"Suuuure, what I'm still wondering is which one, Ruka..." Nonoko trailed off.

"Or Natsume?" Anna picked up.

Mikan blushed a deep red, "Why does it have to be those two?"

"Because practically everyone knows that Ruka-kun likes you, for like two years now," Anna said slyly.

"Really...?" Mikan asked, clueless, never noticing the affection she received from the animal lover.

Anna and Nonoko collapsed, she didn't know? After all these years? What the hell was wrong with her?

Hotaru had warned the two of them before she left that Mikan was slow, but they didn't know that it was to this extent. She was doooooomed!! T-T

"W-well, then how is Natsume involved in this?" Mikan asked trying to cover her embarrassment.

"I don't know, he just fits into the picture," Anna said as she and Nonoko just shrugged nonchalantly.

Now it was Mikan's turn to sweatdrop, what the hell was that supposed to mean?

But what the others didn't know was that Mikan was certain that he loved her, enough to endanger his own life to protect hers. Mikan was just still unsure about her own heart, most of it wants to be able to return Natsume's feelings fully, part of it is guilty, leaving Ruka-pyon like that, and part of it still likes Ando Tsubasa, a senpai from her Special Abilities class.

Anna and Nonoko both stared at their friend who seemed to be deep in thought when suddenly, she screamed. The both of them flinched from surprise and fell over on the bed.

Ahhh, this was too frustrating to think about for Mikan, this crap was just too complicating for it's own good!!

Mikan finally stopped screaming and then smiled at her surprised friends, "I'm okay now."

"What the heck was that about?" Nonoko asked as Anna nodded, also wondering what just happened.

"Sorry to scare the both of you, I was thinking about too much and I was getting stressed, so I had to scream to let it all out, hehe," Mikan said as she scratched the back of her head, embarrassed.

"Sheesh, don't do that again, at least not when we're here," Nonoko said.

"Actually don't do it ever again, who knows, with you screaming all of the time, if you're really in trouble or not!!" Anna said.

Then they heard footsteps running down the hall and stop outside of the door, then came the sound of fists pounding on the door along with the voice of their beloved Iinchou, and the computerized voice of their dorm mother, Takahashi.

"Mikan-chan, did something happen?"

"Sakura-san, we heard you scream, is anything wrong?"

Mikan sigh and then giggled as she walked over to her door and opened it to see the worried faces and expression of Iinchou, Ruka-pyon, and their dorm mother.

"Gomen, gomen, I was letting off some steam, there was a lot of my mind," Mikan said, scratching the back of her head and sticking her tongue out a bit.

Relieved, Yuu said, "Don't do that again, it'll scare us and make it seem like your in danger."

"I don't think that I can promise you that," Mikan said as she laughed.

"Mikan-chan!!" Yuu begged.

"Sorry, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be pretty stressed out in the near future, so expect more screams," Mikan said. "Sorry, Takahashi-mama, you can go back to doing what you were doing before, sorry for the interruption. Hey, Ruka-pyon, what are you doing here for?" Mikan asked as she remembered what Anna and Nonoko had told her and looked away blushing.

"Sakura-san, please don't scare everyone like that again," Ruka said with a caring look in his eyes.

Mikan blushed and said, "I'll try not too, but like I said, I don't think that I can promise you that I definitely won't do it."

"Okay," Ruka said and then left.

"Sorry for intruding, well, see you at dinner, Mikan-chan," Nonoko said as the two of them waved goodbye and left with Yuu.

Mikan closed the door as everyone left and leaned against it, still a bit stressed out and confused, but not enough to scream again and make another commotion.

Mikan then got back onto her feet, walked over to her bed, picked up the hair dryer and comb, and walked to put them back into the bathroom.

When Mikan came out and check the time, she saw that she had about an hour and 15 minutes until dinner was served. That was when she decided to give her uncle, the High school principal, a visit. Mikan then teleported into the office of the High school principle.

Mikan arrived in a quiet room, it seemed like her uncle wasn't in at the moment, must be at a meeting or something. Mikan walked over to the armchair, turned it so that it was facing the huge window behind the desk and sat down on it.

She found out that the High school principal was her uncle the same day that she found out that Hotaru was getting transferred. That day was also the day that Natsume confessed to her indirectly, a lot of things happened in one day.

Mikan curled up in the armchair and decided to take nap until dinner, she was pretty sure that her uncle was going to come back soon and wake her up for dinner.

An hour later, Mikan was woken up by someone picking her up, she rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked up to see who was carrying her and saw that it was her uncle, she was currently curled up on his lap, apparently he wanted his chair back.

Mikan yawned and stretched a bit as her uncle noticed that she was awake and watched as she got up off his lap and onto her own two feet.

"Konbanwa, oji-chan," Mikan greeted, still rubbing the last bit of sleep away from her eyes.

"Konbanwa, Mikan-chan, how long have you been here?" the High school principle asked.

Mikan looked around for a clock and saw that it has been an hour since she got there and responded, "About an hour, where were you?"

"I was in a meeting," her uncle responded.

Mikan inwardly snapped her fingers and thought, 'I knew it!'

"Did you need me for anything?" her uncle asked.

"Mmm, just wanted to visit you and talk about the mission, what was it about again?" Mikan asked, thinking a bit.

Her uncle sighed and said, "Mikan, this is a really important mission. Your mission is to retrieve the lost Alice stone of one of the sponsors of the Academy, it was stolen by Yuka."

"Okaa-san?" Mikan questioned, a bit sad that her mother would do that.

"Don't worry, it was a mission, she didn't do it out of her own will," Mikan's uncle assured her.

"Well, if okaa-san is involved, I don't think that I can do it," Mikan muttered as she looked down at the floor.

"Why not?" her uncle asked.

"I don't know, I don't think that I can face her, after all these years, of not knowing who my parents were, and then she decides to pop into my life as if nothing happened," Mikan said, worried, she had found out that a member of an Anti-Alice organization was her mother a bit after she found out that the High school principal was her uncle.

"Well, it's almost dinner time, you should go get something into your stomach before the mission," her uncle said to her.

"Okay, arigato oji-chan," Mikan said as she hugged her uncle and started to leave, "I might come visit you again after dinner, before the mission, just for the heck of it."

Mikan's uncle nodded and watched as she back away a bit and teleported away, most likely back to her room. This girl has seriously gone through a lot since she came to the Academy.

Mikan had teleported back into her room and looked at the clock once again and saw that it was about time to go eat dinner and walked out of her room and headed towards the cafeteria.

As she walked to the cafeteria, she met up with the a few of the people that she usually hung out with, Anna, Nonoko, Yuu, and Kokoroyomi, a mind reader.

All they did was greet each other as they went and got in line to get dinner.

They finally all got their dinner and sat down at their usual table. Everything seemed like normal, unless you counted the fact that Mikan wasn't participating in the conversation at all, but it didn't seem like big deal so no one mentioned it, they thought that it was because she was tired from working on her project.

Mikan didn't quite have an appetite and just picked at her food as she stared off into the distance and thought about the mission. Could she really do it? Natsume is going to be there and it's going to be hard to use her Alice's to their full potential. Damn, what is she going to do about it?

She needed to clear her mind before the meeting for the mission, or else she wouldn't be able to pay attention and it would mess up the mission and that wouldn't be good at all.

She dropped her fork back onto her tray, got up, bid goodbye to everyone and left, she disposed of her garbage and dirty dishes and continued to walk out of the cafeteria and back to her room.

Sakura walked into her room and closed the door behind her bed, lied down, and thought about how her life has been up until this point. A word to sum everything up, ever since she arrived at the academy looking for her best friend, her life has be hectic.

Her life living with her only family, her grandpa, up until the point that she found out that Hotaru was getting transferred was peaceful and joyful, her life at the academy was hectic and also at times, fun-filled.

Mikan then reached into her shirt and pulled out the necklace, which she always wore, from which hung the many Alice stones that she received from others. One from Sakurano-sempai, another from Tonouchi Akira-sempai, and the last from Natsume, who was still suffering from an unrequited love, even after all these years.

Mikan looked at the clock and saw that it was almost eight, she decided to rest a bit more an then go visit her uncle. She turned onto her side and rested her head on her folded arm and stared at the picture frame on her bedside table. It was a picture of Mikan hugging Hotaru from behind and Hotaru with her famous 'Horse's Hoof' ready to attack at the given time.

Mikan had a sad smile on her face and a longing look in her eyes, she really missed Hotaru, she was the reason that he life was so hectic now, but she was also the reason of her happiness.

Mikan thought about her regular schedule and remembered how tiring the whole ordeal was. She would have classes during the day, and then training in the afternoon and sometimes well into the night. She also had training during the weekends, either early in the morning, in the afternoon, or late at night, everything was determined the day before.

The reason that her schedule was pretty flexible was that the teachers and principles wanted her to have as much time to focus on school and enough time to hang out with her friends because they were afraid that if they kept her away from her friends, she wouldn't be able to continue on with life. I mean she already has been forcibly separated from her best friend, they didn't have the heart to keep her from her other friends who helped her get through the day.

Mikan stared at the picture a bit longer and then decided that she should visit her uncle down and got off her bed, fixed up her appearance a bit and then teleported into his office.

The office was the same as ever, quiet and clean. She walked up to her uncle's desk which he was currently sitting behind and reading some documents.

"Ne, oji-chan, do you think that I will be able to get through this mission without using my Alices? Or at least my natural Alices?

Mikan's uncle looked up from the document that he was reading, thought for a bit and then said, "Hmm, that is a possibility, but it would quite hard if you encounter a fight."

"Really? Why would it be hard, I could just teleport the two of us out of there or to the place that they are holding the stone, grab it, and then get out of there," Mikan theorized.

"Hmm, whatever floats your boat I guess, if you manage to get through with the mission without showing your natural Alices, then I buy you a box of Howalon," her uncle bet.

"Hmm, what an interesting bet that you have there, but if I hurt myself in the process of trying to win that bet, then you would be guilty for the rest of your life," Mikan giggled at what her uncle said. Her uncle was quite weird, he acted calm, cold, and calculating around others while around her, he was warm and...weird.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that you are smart enough not to get yourself injured just for a box of candy," her uncle said as he chuckled.

"Well, we'll have to see about that," Mikan laughed.

"Well, I think that you should go rest for now and then get ready for the mission, mentally and physically," her uncle said as he shooed his niece away.

"Che, also to think of a way to win myself a bow of Howalon," Mikan said as she stuck her tongue out and teleported back into her room.

Mikan looked at the clock once again and saw that it was about half an hour past eight and thought that she should think of the plan first and if she could, then rest after that.

So she got busy to think of a way to stay safe, not show her natural Alices, and win herself a box of candy.

A/N: The second chapter is finally done!! I hope that you liked it, and like I said earlier in the other A/N that this would be a lighter chapter, well, I thought that this was definitely lighter then the first chapter. I hope that you liked it and please review!!


	3. Chapter 3 Guessing

A/N: I'm back with another update, I kind of stuck on this chapter a bit, but I finally got through it and here it is, another chapter!! I hope that you like it, please review!!

"Finally!!" Mikan shouted as she finally thought of a plan, well, her plan was to think of the plan on the spot, soooo...yeah. 'Cause you know, the circumstances aren't quite clear, and she worked better on the spot that thinking of it in advance.

Mikan took a glance at the clock and saw that it was around nine, she had a good two hours before the mission, so she set her alarm clock to wake her up at 11:00, changed into her pj's, hoped into bed and fell fast asleep.

_BAAAARRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIII-PUCK_

A hand slammed onto the alarm clock before it could continue. The person who almost killed their alarm clock turned to look at the time and groaned as she got out of bed and almost fell back over because she was still unbalanced and had to steady herself by holding onto the bedside table.

She waited as the bright light that blinded her eyes subside and then continued to the bathroom to freshen up. She washed her face with a towel and brushed her teeth just foe the hell of it. She then changed into the black uniform that was still in the bathroom and put her hair up into the wig.

She shook her head around violently to check that she had pinned the wig on correctly and that it wouldn't become messed up because of extreme movement and saw that it was fine, even after all of the shaking.

She then combed it a bit to tidy it up and then picked up the black mask and left the bathroom. She looked around her room to see if she had forgotten anything or if there was anything that was useful to this kind of mission and found none.

She put on the mask and became Kochira Daisuke.

The reason that she cross-dressed was because, before, she had a strong desire to keep her identity hidden and that was the only way to make sure that no one thought that is was her, unless they saw her Alice. But she was always cautious about using her Nullification and Stealing Alices around people who knew her but didn't know what was going on. But she still was cautious about using her Nullification Alice anytime.

Mikan would use her artificially acquired Barrier Alice to "nullify" the attacker's Alice. Then she would use her Teleportation Alice to get out of the situation without stealing their Alice to render them useless, and then escape.

She doesn't ever want to have to use her third Alice, the Killing Alice.

She doesn't even know how she got the Alice, it's not hereditary, she already had the two Alices that her parents had. She never had any ill intention, did she?

This wasn't the time to think about things like that, she looked at the clock and saw that she had 15 minutes until the meeting time and then decided to walk there instead of using her Alice, she needed to save her energy just in case they get into a bad situation later.

She was about to go out of her room when she thought that it would be weird to see a weird boy in a fully black uniform with a black mask walking around at night, and decided to go a different way. She closed her room door and walked over to her window and opened it, she then stepped out onto the windowsill, turned around and closed the window until there was an average-sized gap and then jumped onto the tree, climbed down and walked on the ground towards the elementary school to go to the Elementary School Principle's office to meet up with her partner.

She made sure to keep in the shadows and stay quiet as she passed the dorms that were on ground-level. She quickly ran to the meeting place when she got to the school and knocked on the door to wait for their invitation.

Shortly after, she heard a quiet, "You may come in," and proceeded to open the door and stepped in. She saw that Natsume was already there and looked around quickly to see if she was late and saw that she was still a few minutes early, Natsume must have gotten here pretty early.

She walked up to be side-by-side with Natsume and waited to hear the details of the mission.

"The objective of the mission is to retrieve a stolen Alice stone of one of the school's main sponsors. The location is said to be in the 2nd level of a club called 'Iyoku', in downtown Tokyo. That is all the information that known to us," Persona said.

Then he took out something and handed it to the two of them, each of them took one. It looked like a limiting device, but it was probably something to allow them to depart from the school through the barrier without detection and without disturbing the barrier.

They were both rings but the one that Daisuke got was one that went on the middle finger, so he put it on his left middle finger and the one that Natsume got was one that went on the ring finger, so he put it on his right ring finger.

It was a simple 1 ½ centimeter long, silver metal ring.

The two masked ones nodded and then walked out of the room.

They walked out to the front of the school and headed towards the school gates in a full dash. They jumped into the giant tree that was near the gates, and climbed up to a branch that was way above the gates, each jumped off, flipped, and went way over the gates and got through the barrier without a problem. The flipped until they dove into the canopy of trees right outside the gates and landed on another branch.

Natsume landed first and then continued to dash through the mini-forest towards the place filled with lights. Daisuke landed on the same branch after Natsume and continued to follow him to near their destination.

As they somehow got to near their destination without being seen, and into yet another tree, they observed how the outside looked. They stood on the tree branch together, contemplating how they should get in.

Daisuke then noticed something and then cursed, this was going to be annoying. He quickly made a fair-sized Alice stone and gave it to Natsume, who stared at it and then put it into his pocket, not knowing which Alice it was for, since it was dark, he couldn't see what color it was and he didn't know how to tell them apart.

Daisuke inwardly sighed, relieved that Natsume didn't question what it was for. Since he didn't want to talk, he took the initiative, jumped, broke through the window with his feet and landed, alerting all of the bodyguards.

There was no point in keeping quiet, they would have to encounter them anyways. Natsume glared, not too happy about how his partner got in, but still followed suit and jumped in through the broken window. By the time he got up from his crouched position, he saw Daisuke standing, with knocked out bodies lying around him. What kind of person was his partner, to be able to move that quickly and disable and knock out so many.

Daisuke inwardly laughed nervously, he didn't quite knock them out on purpose, he had just broken through the window when all of them came running, but he couldn't stick his landing, tripped, bumped into one of them that was running towards him, who got off balance, knocked into the others behind him, who in turn, bumped the back of their heads on the wall, knocking them out.

The two of them ran towards the center of the building and heard talking from one of the rooms and then burst in, catching the guards off guard (XP- PUNN!), and Daisuke and Natsume quickly disarmed them and knocked them out, Natsume via Alice, and Daisuke via martial arts.

Daisuke sensed the power coming from one of them and quickly knocked him out, it would be troublesome to have him say anything about how they were able to get in so easily and how the boy with the cat mask was able to use his Alice so easily.

The both of them approached the guy who was just sitting on the couch and watching the whole scene, there were still a few bodyguards surrounding him. The two of them looked around the bare room to see any other hiding place for the stone and saw none, so that must mean that the guy in the middle had it on him.

Then the two of the dove in, ready to fight whoever came their way and Daisuke had a feeling that the mad didn't have it on him, but in him, the stone must have been inserted into his body to make sure that know one was able to steal it in anyway unless they had the Alice that could do it, which Daisuke did, but he had to do it discreetly.

As the two of them fought the guards, Daisuke quickly ran towards the man, who wasn't exactly doing anything to protect himself, jumped, flipped over the man, held a hand over the man's head as a stone quickly formed in his hand, landed behind the man, and elbowed the back of his neck, knocking him out before anything else could happed.

Natsume was fighting a few of them when Daisuke signaled him that they had to get out of there now, Natsume formed a ring of fire around the remaining few and then walked over to his partner, who in turn, grabbed his arm and they disappeared.

They reappeared standing on the tree inside of the school gates that they had jumped off of, they had teleported. So this person had the Teleportation Alice.

Daisuke showed Natsume the pinkish-purple stone that he was holding, nodded, and then ran towards the elementary school.

Once they were outside of the double doors of the principle's office, Daisuke held out his hand, stone in hand and waited until Natsume held out his hand under his, and dropped the stone into his hand.

They then just walked through the doors and stopped, a few steps in.

"I take it that the mission was a success?" Persona questioned the two who just walked in. Their answer was Natsume throwing the stone towards Persona, who in turn caught it and then examined it.

"Good job," was what Persona said as Natsume was already on his way out of the room and Daisuke followed.

They exchanged no words as the two of them walked towards the exit and then towards the dorms. Once Natsume turned the corner, with Daisuke behind him, Daisuke disappeared, must've used his Alice to returned to his dorm, without leaving a trace.

Daisuke teleported back to his room, not bothering to turn on the lights, just encase Natsume was looking at the windows to see which light turned on, he went over to his window and closed it, and drew the curtains.

He then walked into the bathroom, turned on the light, and finally took off the mask.

Mikan looked into the mirror to see that her cheeks were a bit red, probably from nervousness, scared that Natsume might have been able to follow her and find out her identity.

She was glad that the mission went well, it was a total guess that the stone was in the man, good thing that it was, or else she would have stolen his original Alice and then it would cause an uproar. The man must've originally been a normal man, roped in to do the dirty business by money.

She put the mask down, took off the wig and released her hair from it's pinned style, combing it a bit. She then changed into her pajamas, folded up her uniform, placed her mask, face-up, on top, closed the light to the bathroom, walked through the dark to her closet, opened it, and put the black outfit back in the back, behind the rack of clothes in front.

Mikan then fixed the clothes in front, closed her closet, walked over to her bed and plopped down, tired. She pulled the covers over her legs, adjusted her alarm clock to ring at the normal time, and then fell back onto her pillow, throwing the covers over her and fell fast asleep.

_BAAAARRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIII-PUCK_

Once again, the poor alarm clock must've suffered a concussion or head injury of some sort as a hand had slammed down on it's top.

Mikan was thankful that see took that nap yesterday, or else she would have been able to open her eyes. She threw her covers to the side as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stumbled to the bathroom.

She combed her hair a bit and tied it up into a simple low ponytail, to keep her hair out of her way, she then brushed her teeth and washed her face. She looked at her reflection in the mirror as she pat her face dry with a towel and sat that, thankfully, she didn't have any eye-bags. But even if she did, her classmates would have probably thought that she was up late working on her project.

Mikan put the towel back and walked out to her room, and walked over to her closet and took out a clean uniform and changed into it. She took her pj's and walked into the bathroom and put them on top of the clothes hamper, save it for later. She pulled the scrunchie out of her hair as all of it fanned out.

As she combed it out, she stared into the mirror and remembered was Natsume had said two years ago when they were in the portal. _'Put it down. It Looks better that way.' _ Mikan blushed as she quickly put her hair up into the usual ponytails, and rushed out of the bathroom to not be able to see herself in the mirror.

Mikan checked the time, perfect, it was time fore breakfast. As she walked to the cafeteria, she thought about the mission last night and remembered that she had put the ring, that she was given, into a hole in the tree when they had teleported back in and when Natsume wasn't looking. She was afraid that it might have had a tracker, dangerous to her, they could easily find out who she was, which she didn't want.

She arrived in the cafeteria and got in line right behind Natsume and blushed a bit about what she had remembered earlier, damnit.

As she waited, a shine caught her eye and looked down, she saw that it was the ring that Natsume was wearing had caused the shine. Mikan was a bit shocked, why was he still wearing it? Did he forget to take it off or something? Was he not able to take it off?

Natsume must've noticed her staring as he quickly stuffed his right hand into his pocket and used the other hand to carry his tray.

Mikan stuck her tongue at him just for the hell of it and walked up to the window and swiped her ID card on the side, and out came a meal worthy of a Triple Star. Mikan quickly grabbed her tray as the window was about to close and then walked over to her usual table and sat down. A few of her friends were already there as they greeted each other good morning.

She quickly finished her breakfast, not quite in the mood for chit chat, excused herself and went back to her room to get her books.

Mikan got to her room, grabbed her books and headed towards the classroom, ready for her day to start.

A/N: Phew, finally done! I hope that you liked it! Sorry if it took long for me to update, in the beginning I was stuck on how I should have the mission go, and then I finally thought about it, and this is how it came out! Well, I hope that you like it! Please review!!


	4. Chapter 4 A Slip Up

A/N: I'm back with another chapter!! Hooray!! This is my longest chapter for this story, and I guess that it's a way to apologize for the late update. Well, all-in-all, I hope that you like it and please review!!

It seemed that Mikan was the first to arrive in the classroom but as she looked around, she saw that she wasn't alone, Natsume was there, sitting in his seat, feet on the table, book over face. Mikan walked over to her seat, Hotaru's old seat, and placed her things on the table.

Mikan stared at the table, not knowing what to do, then she remembered something and then walked over to Natsume. She had long changed her seat to Hotaru's so she no longer sat next to the fire user.

"Ne, Natsume, what was up with the ring that I saw on your finger when we were in line for breakfast?" Mikan asked casually. Natsume didn't answer as she stood there, staring at him.

Then, as she was about to walk away, a hand shot out and grabbed her at the wrist. Mikan stopped in her tracks and looked down at the hand gripping her wrist, it was the hand that had the ring on it. In the position that it was, the ring glimmered, even though it was just plain silver, it looked really pretty.

"It's not my choice to where it," Natsume said as he took the book off his face, closed it and put it on the table next to his legs.

"So, it was for a mission? Then why didn't you take it off?" Mikan asked, wanting to know why.

"I would have taken it off if I could, but apparently, I can't," Natsume said as he finally let go of Mikan's wrist and then held his hand in the air to look at the ring as it caught the light.

Mikan then reached over and took the hand and brought it close to her face to see what could have caused to it be stuck. Mikan didn't find anything and then tried to pull it off herself.

"Maybe if you used lotion, then it would come off," Mikan suggested.

"I tried everything, it's not stuck on there by accident. It was purposely made to be stuck on the finger after being worn for a long time," Natsume explained.

"Hmmm, why would anyone want that?" Mikan asked as she continued to look at the ring.

"It probably has a tracker in it," Natsume suggested.

Mikan inwardly snapped her fingers and thought, 'I knew it! Thank god I took it right off after we came back into the barrier, phew!'

Natsume pulled his hand back as the two of them became silent, Mikan, not knowing what to do next, just walked back to her seat and sat down.

As her back was facing Daisuke's temporary partner, Mikan's expression was that of someone deep in thought, 'So I was right, it had a tracker in it. But why would they want to have the ring stuck on even after the mission. It was probably for me, to find out who I was. Damnit, that wouldn't be good, that would mean that they had already suspected that Kochira Daisuke wasn't real.'

Mikan leaned back in her seat, stretched out her legs, and used her forearm to cover the lights, 'They move quick, this was going to be hard then I thought.' Mikan let out a sigh, she had to be more careful from now on.

Natsume heard Mikan sigh and looked over to see what she was doing, she was all sprawled out in her seat, it seemed that she was thinking about something, but what was she be thinking about that caused her to look so tired?

Natsume thought about the possibilities as the other kids in his class started flooding in and Natsume saw in the corner of his eyes that as the other kids started coming in Mikan had hurriedly straightened up and put a smile on her face, hiding the tiredness that he had just seen.

Natsume kept what he had just observed, to himself, he'll ask when the time was right.

**Later that day after classes.**

Mikan quickly packed her bag, bid her friends goodbye and then rushed to her room. She needed to get changed before going to her training session for the day.

Today was Thursday so that meant that it was the day to train with the Middle school principle and train her Barrier Alice. Even though it seems that she already had everything down, it still was better to keep training it and expanding and increasing it's power and how big of a field she could cast.

Mikan rushed to her room, threw her books and bad onto the bed and walked over to her closet and pulled out a nice, colorful yukata that was given to her by the principle.

Thankfully, it was just a light yukata, with nothing much to layer, so Mikan was able to change into it quickly and teleported to the area near the principle's hanahimeden, since she couldn't go any farther in with her Alice because of the principle's strong Barrier Alice.

Mikan walked the rest of the way into the back room and met the principle there who was waiting for her.

Mikan bowed as she waited for further instruction.

"Today, we'll be training with putting barriers on moving objects and protecting them from being damaged. We'll be working with Shizune today," the principle announced.

Mikan looked to the side as she saw Shizune emerging from the side and said, "Konnichiwa, Shizune-senpai," and slightly bowed towards her.

"Konnichiwa, Mikan, how was the mission?" Shizune asked as she walked up towards Mikan.

"Oh yeah, I meant to ask about that too," the principle, also known as Hii-sama, said.

"It went well, nothing went wrong that cause the mission to fail," Mikan said as she looked down towards the side.

"You mean to say that when you were breaking in, you tripped and then bumped into the guards, causing them to bump into the other guards and making them hit their head on the wall, knocking them out and then when your partner came in, he thought that you knocked them all out by yourself," Hii-sama said.

Mikan giggled nervously and nodded her head.

Hii-sama sighed and the said, "I guess that it was a good thing you tripped and then knocked them all out in one go, but I need to discuss with the others to help train you with balance, and sticking your landing. Your clumsiness won't always result in something as convenient and helpful as that."

The only thing that Mikan could do was offer a weak, 'Haaaaai.'

"Now let's get started, Shizune will be throwing an object up, to the the side, or across the room, and your job is to form a barrier around it until it hits the floor before Shizune and able to use her Sound Alice and do something to it."

This time Mikan was able to offer a strong 'Hai.'

Then Mikan turned towards Shizune as she began to speak, "For the first time around, you will be facing the direction in which I will throw the object, in other words you will have your eye on the object which will make is easier for you to locate it and form a barrier around it. Other times, your back will be facing it and once I throw it, you would have to turn around, locate the moving target, and form a barrier around before I am able to do anything to. Also, we'll start with bigger, lighter objects first, and then gradually start using smaller, heavier objects. We will also have multiple objects, but we might not get to that until next week or even two weeks from now. Do you understand?"

"Hai," Mikan said as she walked over to Shizune's side, waiting for her to begin.

Shizune then walked to behind the screen that was set up off to the side and pulled out a bow filled with things that could be thrown.

First up was...a huge peacock feather...who provided these things?

"It was Hii-sama's idea, now get ready," Shizune explained and then got ready to throw the feather as Mikan turned in the direction of the open space of the room and waited for Shizune to throw it.

Shizune pulled her hand back and threw the feather into the air as Mikan started trying to form a barrier around the moving object, it was harder than it looks.

Mikan had only succeeded to form a barrier on half of it when Shizune used her Alice and said, "Expand," so only half of the feather expanded.

As it hit the floor Mikan turned to look at Hii-sama, "It's not as easy as it looks, right?" Mikan nodded, it was definitely harder than she thought it would be. "Maybe you should start out by pointing at the object as it moves, it'll be easier to cast a barrier around it as you are targeting it, it's more direct, less abstract."

Mikan nodded, she hoped that it would help, or else she would be a failure, nooooooooo!! Hell no!! She didn't want that at all, she had already come this far, she wasn't going to back down.

Mikan had a determined look on her face as Shizune picked out the next object and pulled out a piece of writing paper...at least it was better than the feather!

Shizune threw the paper like a frisbee and Mikan held out her arm and pointed at it as it flew across the room and cast a barrier around it, Mikan thought that she had it but that was until Shizune said, "Soak," and they watched as the paper slowly but surely started to get wet. The barrier wasn't strong enough.

"Damnit" Mikan cursed under her breathe, this was going to take a while, that's what Shizune meant that it would take her maybe even two weeks to getting to working with multiple objects.

**Few hours later.**

It had already been a few hours and Mikan had finally managed to "protect" a few objects from being distorted.

Mikan was sweating even though she wasn't moving around all too much, it showed the mental distress that she was going through.

"That'll be all for this week," Shizune said as started to walk around the room and collect the objects that they used.

"Hai," Mikan said breathlessly as she helped out to pick the things up.

After the room floor was rid of the many objects Mikan walked up to Hii-sama who was still there, watching, and bowed.

"You made some progress this week, which is good, but I expected more from you, you'll have to work harder next week," Hii-sama said as Mikan bowed and bid goodbye to the two of them.

Mikan walked out and stared up at the red-orange sky and sighed, there was less progress today than she wanted, she really needed to work harder next week. As soon as she walked to the point that the barrier wasn't as strong, Mikan teleported back to her room.

Mikan changed just in time as she put the yukata away there was a knock on her door.

Mikan walked over to her door as she straightened out her clothes and opened it to see the 'Two Geeky Sisters'.

"Hey Mikan, we were just on our way to the cafe for dinner but decided to come and get you first." Nonoko said.

Mikan giggled and then said, "Thanks, let's go," as she walked out of her room and the three of them walked towards the cafe for dinner.

**With Natsume.**

Natsume had just woken up from a nap and got up as he felt something fall out of his pocket, he looked back down at his bed and saw a stone, it was the Alice stone that was given to him from Daisuke.

He never really got to take a good look at it as he was on a mission and didn't have time for things like that and finally picked it up and held it in the moonlight that shined through his window and saw that the stone was fairly big.

Daisuke must have been really strong to have made a stone this big that quickly, unless it was made ahead of sometime.

The color was reddish-orange, he couldn't quite tell which Alice it was, but it reminded him of the small orange stone fragment that Mikan had given to him two years ago because of the Dark Alice Stone Game.

Natsume then opened the drawer to his bedside table and drew out a small case and opened it, in there sat the small stone fragment that was given to him, still unused and new as the day it was given to him.

He held the fragment in one hand between his fingers as he held the Alice Stone that he was given during the mission in the other. The color was really close the the full stone had a hint of red, so it couldn't be from the same creator, right? Plus, Mikan was a girl and Daisuke was clearly a boy, right?

Actually, he couldn't be too sure about that, you never know when things turn totally unexpected from what you thought it would be.

He thought about it as he covered the box back and returned it to the drawer and still looked at the stone as he walked out of his room to get dinner.

**With Mikan.**

Mikan was just staring off into the distance as she thought about random things and wasn't looking where she was going and bumped into something, more like someone.

Mikan rebounded off the person's back and fell back onto her hit. Mikan muttered a small, "Ow," as Nonoko and Anna asked if she was okay, and that they tried to warn her but it was too late.

"I'm fine guys," Mikan said as she laughed a bit and looked up to see who she had bumped into and saw that it was Natsume, it seemed that he was deep in thought too.

Mikan just got up with the help of her friends and turned to Natasume and said, "What are you doing, standing there in the middle of the hall, Natsume?!"

"Che, shut up, ugly, just watch where your going," Natsume said as he stuffed his hand in his pocket and walked ahead.

"You meanie, do you still intend to call me that?" Mikan shouted after him.

"Che, of course, my opinion of you hasn't changed," Natsume shouted back over his shoulder.

"Hmph, meanie," Mikan muttered as she saw something shine in Natsume's hand, Mikan thought tha tit was the ring that he couldn't get off so she didn't think too much of it and stuck her tongue at his back and continued to walk to the cafe for dinner.

**After Dinner**

Mikan had once again finished her dinner earlier than the others and decided to go back to room first and was walking, not paying attention again, and bumped into someone else, this time head on.

Mikan was on her butt as she muttered to herself, "Damnit, why am I bumping into so many people today, is it karma because I didn't make all that much progress today in training?"

"Training? What training, Sakura-san?"

Mikan looked across from her to see who she had bumped into and who had just asked her that question and had a shocked look on her face, it was the other poor boy that was suffering from a long time unrequited love, and the best friend of the other sufferer, Nogi Ruka.

"Oh, um, hehe, nothing, I was just talking rubbish, I don't even know what I'm talking about, hehe," Mikan quickly spit out as she laughed nervously and took the hand that Ruka offered and got pulled up.

"Oh, where were you, didn't see you at dinner," Mikan said, desperate to change the topic.

"Oh," Ruka said as he yawned, "I just woke up from a nap and I'm on my way now, its seems like you finished early."

"Yeah, I was just on my way back to my room, well, I guess that I'll see you tomorrow," Mikan said as she continued on her way and waved goodbye to the blond haired, blue eyed boy.

As Mikan continued on her way back to her room, she silently cursed under breathe, that was close, at least she didn't say anything else that could have been worse. She didn't even want to think about what else she could have said.

Mikan, not having anything else to do, just jumped onto her bed, face up, and spread out her arms and legs.

Mikan stared at the ceiling as she thought about her feelings. She wasn't sure anymore. A year ago, she was sure that she would so anything to be with Natsume and run away with him, but that feeling disappeared after Hotaru was transferred.

Mikan sighed, why was love so complicated. She was sure that she didn't feel anything special towards Ruka, at least she was sure of that. Unless, you counted guilt. Feeling guilty about leaving him and wanting to be with his best friend before.

Mikan sighed again, it has been two years since she entered the academy, one year since Hotaru was transferred and she found out a lot about herself, and six months since she started training to become stronger.

Mikan shook her head around violently, she didn't want to think about that crap right now. As she was able to clear her head she suddenly remembered, her free box of Howalon!

Mikan immediately sat up and snapped her fingers, how could she forget about it, she smacked herself on the forehead lightly and put a smile on her face, she was going to get a free bow of Howalon. Mikan jumped on her bed, skipped around a bit to let off some excitement and then teleported into her uncle's office.

Dark as usual, at least this time, her uncle was sitting there, behind his desk, and seemed to be doing some paper work and flipping through papers furiously. But, Mikan walked up to his desk to take a look at what he was doing and saw that he was...drawing...a flipbook. O.O! What the hell?!

Mikan sweatdropped. So this was the kind of person her uncle was, putting up a front to make it seem like he was working really hard and getting his job done, but in reality he wasn't. He was just doing something for his own amusement.

"Oh hey, Mikan, I didn't see you there," her uncle said as he looked up, and seemed to try and hide his little project that he was working on.

Mikan face vaulted and hit the table with her face. Did her uncle think that she was that much of an idiot?

"Hi, oji-chan, I was here just to collect my free box of candy to see that my uncle, the oh-so-serious High School Principle, was working on a flipbook instead of doing his work. Also to see that he must think that I am an idiot by still trying to hide the thing while I had already seen all of it. Oh my god! What has the world come too?!" Mikan asked as she dramatically waved her arms around and collapsed on the floor.

The principle sweatdropped, it wasn't that bad was it? "Well, since you came all the way over here to get your prize for winning to bet, here it is," he said as he pulled out a medium sized, present style box and held it out in his hand as Mikan sprung up from her place on the floor and immediately grabbed it and then jumped over the table, into her uncle's lap and hugged him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! Love you so much!!" Mikan said enthusiastically.

"Hmm, do you really love me?" her uncle asked as he chuckled and held Mikan in his arms.

"Mmhm, mmhm," Mikan replied as she nodded her head vigorously.

"Hmm, because I gave you candy?" her uncle asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Mikan giggled and said, "I love you more because you gave me candy, I would still love you a lot even though you didn't give me any candy."

"Oh really? Then I guess that I should advise Natsume-kun to buy you a lot of Howalon for you to return his long time love," her uncle said as he rubbed his chin.

Mikan blushed, what the hell, how did her uncle know about that? "W-w-what are you talking about?"

"You know pretty well what I'm talking about," her uncle teased.

"W-well, I don't know if I like him like that anymore," Mikan said as she looked down at the box of candy in her hands.

"I feel sorry for Natsume, suffering from such a tough luck, and that person isn't all that great of a person either," her uncle said as he shrugged.

Mikan's head shot up to look at her uncle, she hit him playfully on the chest and whined, "Hey, what is that supposed to mean? You meanie, what kind of uncle are you?"

Mikan's uncle chuckled as she got off his lap and then back up a bit.

"I'm not talking to you anymore because of that," Mikan giggled and pouted a bit as she got ready to teleport back to her room and as she was about to leave completely, she added, "Oh yeah, thank you for the candy though!"

Mikan giggled as she arrived back to her room and jumped back onto her bed and sat cross-legged , opened the box, and took out a delicious fluff ball and took a bite, hooray for Howalon D!

A/N: Yay! Done with the next chapter, sorry for the late update, I was busy during the weekend and was away from home, so I had no way to continue typing the chapter that I started before I left. Oh well, at least I'm done now!! Well, I hope that you liked it and thank you for reading! Please review!!


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